Emily Blunt in Talks to Join Dwayne Johnson in Benny Safdie’s MMA Drama ‘The Smashing Machine’
variety.comEmily Blunt is in talks to join Benny Safdie’s solo directorial debut “The Smashing Machine,” an A24 feature film starring Dwayne Johnson as MMA and UFC champion Mark Kerr, Variety has confirmed.
The film will begin production this summer. Blunt is in talks to play Dawn Staples, Kerr’s wife. Per the studio, “While trying to set up a new life together, Dawn struggles to find her place within Mark’s chaotic and contradictory world.” The project would reunite Blunt with both Safdie, with whom she starred in Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” and Johnson, her co-star from Disney’s 2021 film “Jungle Cruise.” The film’s logline reads, “‘The Smashing Machine’ is a drama based on the story of Mark Kerr, the legendary MMA fighter from the no-holds-barred era of the UFC at the peak of his career.
He struggles with addiction, winning, love and friendship in the year 2000.” Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia’s Seven Bucks Productions will produce alongside Safdie’s Out for the Count banner, Eli Bush and David Koplan.
Blunt’s potential involvement in the film doesn’t come entirely as a surprise. In fact, the Oscar nominee is actually a key reason the movie is being made, Johnson told Variety in January.
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